Oliver Cromwell PDF
Preview Oliver Cromwell
AS210 95$ Oliver Cromwell Samuel Rawson Gardiner With a New Introduction by Maurice Ashley A classic biography of the controversial English hero rm Gardiner on Cromwell "Oliver's claim to greatness can be tested by the undoubted fact that his character receives higher and wider appreciation as th—e centuries pass by. The limitations on his nature the one-sided—ness of his religious zeal, the mistakes of his policy are thrust out of sight; the nobility of his motives, the strength of his character, and the breadth of his intellect force themselves on the minds of generations for which the objects for which he strove have been for the most part attained, though often in a different fashion from that which he placed before himself. Even those who refuse to waste a thought on his spiritual aims re- member with gratitude his constancy of effort to make England great by land and sea; and it would be well for them also to be reminded of his no less con- stant efforts to make England worthy of greatness." SAMUEL RAWSON GARDINER mm With a New Introduction by MAURICE ASHLEY COLLIER BOOKS NEW YORK, N.Y. .er Bookl is I division ol I he ( ioudl-( oilier Publishing omp c I nst Collier Bo >fi 1962 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 62-12074 Copyright © 1962 by The Crowell-Collier Publishing Company All Rights Reserved Hecho en los E.E.U.U. Printed in the United States of America Introduction Introduction Soon after Samuel Rawson Gardiner's death onFebruary 23, 1902, the famous American historian, James Ford Rhodes, went so far as to compare him with Charles Darwin as "al- most the only perfectly disinterested lover of truth." Another American historian, Edward Channing, said: "I firmly believe that Mr. Gardiner is the greatest historical writer who has appeared since Gibbon." Gardiner, who was born on March 4, 1829, dedicated practically the whole ofhis working life to pioneering research into the history of Great Britain in the seventeenth century. Although he took a first-class degree at Oxford University and was awarded a Studentship (or Fellowship) at Christ Church, he was not able to pursue his chosen work there on account of his unusual religion. For he had become a member of the Catholic Apostolic Church, founded by Edward Irving, whose youngest daughter he married in 1855. They settled in London and he had to depend largely on teaching or writing textbooks for his living (before he died he was twice married and left eight children); he gave instruction in private schools and lectured at London University; in 1877 he was appointed Professor of Modern History at King's College. But on many days every year he was to be found in the British Museum laboring on his projected masterpiece, a history of England from the accession of King James I to the death of Oliver Cromwell. This was the work that gained Gardiner his world reputa- tion. Before it neared completion he was given a Civil List w 8 / OUra Ow wdl pension by the British Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone; he was ted to i\w> research Fellowships al Oxford; and he was evefl offered the academic accolade, the Regius Professorship Modern History at Oxford, which he refused, as it would have meant too much time away from his beloved labors in the British Museum. Gardiner's method of writing history was as follows: firsts he would attempt to read everything thatwas^van^le^bout his subject in every language (he coufd read most European languages) whether in print or in manuscript; having digested that, he would endeavor to^shut his mind to any knowledge he the period on which he was then en- gaged; he believed passionately in a strict adherence to chro- nology. "If he was working at the year 1653 he would decline material relating to 1654. 1 am not ready for that yet,' he would say in his inexpressibly gentle way." He usually wrote in the British Museum in the midst of all his manuscripts and pamphlets. He wrote rapidly, corrected little, and after a few pages were finished he would send them off directly to the printer. Though he kept in touch with everything that was written or discovered about his subject and admitted that he was liable to error, when revising his book he was more con- cerned about rearranging his presentation than over altering his arguments. In substance most of what he wrote remains as valid today as when it was written in the mid-Victorian period; and the facts that he unearthed have been absorbed into the body of historical knowledge. Two volumes of his history were published at a time. When the first two appeared they were somewhat critically received and a mere hundred or so copies were sold. Gradually, how- ever, the assiduity and single-mindedness of his toil came to be generally appreciated: "We know the history of England from 1603 to 1656 better than we do that of any other period of the world," asserted J. F. Rhodes in 1902, "and for this we are indebted mainly to Samuel Rawson Gardiner." Academic honors and praises were showered upon him everywhere. His eighteen volumes were acclaimed by his pupil, Sir Charles Firth, as "an achievement of permanent value." Though Gardiner did not live to complete his main work down to the
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